- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law Monday removing the state’s 24-week abortion limit, allowing abortions at any point in pregnancy based on physician approval.
- Kate Dineen and Alex Lawton spoke at the bill’s press conference, recounting their own experience leaving the state for a late-term abortion in 2021.
- Massachusetts becomes the 10th state without a gestational abortion limit, drawing criticism online from Republican lawmakers.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law on Monday allowing abortions to be performed in her state at any point before birth.
Before the change, abortions were legal until 24 weeks (5½ months), with exceptions granted to preserve the life or physical or mental health of the mother.
“We’re signing this law today so that new patients — people we won’t know or won’t meet — will be able to get the care that they need in Massachusetts,” Healey said upon signing the bill. The new law says abortions after 24 weeks will be allowed “based on the professional judgment of the physician.”
Massachusetts is the country’s 10th state to remove abortion limits.
The other states/districts are:
- Alaska
- Colorado
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Washington, D.C.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, as well as Massachusetts’ nine representatives, have not publicly said anything of the new law.
In a statement to the Deseret News, Utah Sen. Mike Lee commented on the law change.
“The new Massachusetts law allows elective abortions through all nine months of pregnancy, permitting the killing of a baby old enough to breathe and cry to be fed outside of the womb,” Lee said. “This is barbarity far beyond the policies of most states in America and any country in Europe. Americans should pray for the mothers and children of Massachusetts.”
In Utah, elective abortion is legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy.
Healey invited Boston residents Kate Dineen and her husband Alex Lawton to speak about the bill, which they had advocated for over the past several years.
In 2021, Dineen was 33 weeks pregnant when her baby suffered a stroke in utero. Her doctors told her he would die before birth or live a short life. So Dineen and Lawton traveled to Bethesda, Maryland, to get an abortion.
“At the care clinic in Bethesda, Maryland, we received compassionate abortion care from the late doctor Leroy Carhart,” Lawton said. “We gave our son Teddy the middle name Lee to honor the doctor who helped our family when the doctors here weren’t able to. We ultimately drove a thousand miles, paid thousands and thousand of dollars to access what I consider basic medical care.”
Lawton said he and his wife “felt like fugitives, fleeing our home state with the best-in-class hospital right down the road.”
Dineen added, “We have learned that an abortion ban with exceptions does not allow patients to access the care they need when they need it. So today we are righting this wrong once and for all. This bill will remove our state’s arbitrary and harmful gestational ban and allow patients and their doctors to make these deeply personal medical decisions without government interference.”
Healey referenced Dineen and Lawton’s story.
“Today mothers, fathers and families who experience these devastating diagnoses — and they are devastating, heartbreaking — now they’ll be able to make their own choices. They’ll be able to get the care that they need right here in Massachusetts,” Healey said.
She added, “The bottom line for people in Massachusetts is if you care about women’s health, if you care about making sure that women are able to access the healthcare that they need in consultation with their doctors, this should be clear. I stand with women. My opponents do not.”
The internet responds
As Healey signed the bill into law, a group of women wearing pink, black and white stood around her and clapped. As a video of the signing circulated, it drew a strong reaction online.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz responded to the news, “Lord, please save us from liberal White women....”
Fellow Sen. Lee responded to the news, “🚨Massachusetts declares the worship of Moloch as its official state religion🚨."
Moloch is a Canaanite deity referenced in the Hebrew Bible that is heavily associated with child sacrifice.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett reacted by writing, “Jesus wept.”
On Bluesky, the progressive alternative for X, reactions to the law have been more positive.
Andrea Devon, one Bluesky user, referenced the law change. “Texas women deserve this too. While Texas continues to restrict abortion access, Massachusetts just expanded protections for abortion care under Gov. Maura Healey. 🔥 Greg Abbott took away our choices. Texas women still have one left: the ballot box," she wrote.
Another user, Edward Sihler, described the law change as a win for “small government and personal freedom.”